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Waveshare announces a 4.2" and 7.5" NFC-powered E Ink devices

WaveShare announced a new 4.2" 400x300 and 7.5" 800x480 NFC-powered E Ink devices. The idea is that these can be used as small monitors that do not require any batteries or power.

These devices can be updated via a smartphone that supports NFC (via the NFCTag application). Screen refresh rime is around 4-5 seconds. The price of the 4.2" model is $39.99 and the 7.5" model is $68.99. Waveshare says that not all smartphones will have a strong enough NFC to connect to the devices, but Waveshare offers a dedicated NFC board with a micro-SD card for $22. These devices also ship from Amazon.com, costing a bit more than directly via WaveShare.

Read the full story Posted: Mar 18, 2020

Paperscast completes an E Ink bus-station signage trial in London

Papercast announced that it has successfully completed a solar powered e-paper bus stop display trial at bus stops on Lower Sloane Street (Stop M) and Waterloo Bridge (Stop P) in central London.

Papercast solar-powered e-paper bus station signage, London, UK

Papercast displays are based on E Ink panels and are powered exclusively from solar panels. The displays are wireless connected and can be easily installed completely ‘off-the-grid’. Transport Of London's Head of Tech & Data - Surface Transport says that Tfl is "very impressed by the advancements made, both in terms of performance and functionality".

Read the full story Posted: Feb 23, 2020

ynvisible ramps up its in-house display production as the company aims to see its displays in the IOT market by 2019

ynvisible was established in Portugal in 2010 to develop flexible transparent electrochromic displays produced using a simple printing method. In 2011 the company started producing sample products (we tested one in August 2012). Fast forward to September 2018, the company has gone through a reverse take-over, and the now Canadian headquartered Ynvisible Interactive Inc. has inaugurated its new production line near Lisbon, and we had an interesting discussion with the company's CEO, Jani-Mikael Kuusisto who updates us on the company's technology and business.

ynvisible is focusing on developing the inks that are used to print these relatively simple displays for use in everyday consumer goods and printable surfaces. The electrochromic displays are cost-effective and highly energy-efficient. The company used to have a capacity to produce a few thousands of displays each month, but the new production facility can produce hundreds of thousands of displays each month.

Read the full story Posted: Oct 08, 2018

E Ink and Texen to bring battery-less displays based smart packaging

E Ink announced a new collaboration with Texen, a provider of product solutions for the luxury and beauty market, to bring personalized packaging solutions to cosmetic customers. The companies demonstrated a smart packaging design for customizable packaging displays for makeup compacts, perfume bottles and other cosmetic packaging.

Texen E Ink concept photo

The E Ink display is powered purely by near field communications (NFC) and can be updated by a smartphone that generates radio frequency signals carrying both the information and energy needed to update the display. E Ink and Texen are already taking customers orders for the new solution.

Read the full story Posted: Jan 22, 2017

Microsoft research developed a wireless energy-neutral E Ink display

Microsoft Research developed a small e-paper (E Ink) based display that harvests its entire energy using photo-voltaic cells on the back. Using low-energy bluetooth the device connects tot he network every 1-25 minutes (depends on the ambient lighting) to update the display.

The display itself seems very small (around 2-3 inch in size and is a very low resolution one). This is a very neat little gadget, although it's unlikely this will be turned into a real commercial product, at this stage it is just a research project.

Read the full story Posted: Oct 23, 2016

Visionect helps develop a solar-powered ePaper-based violence prevention system

Mexico-based PERO360 developed a new solar-powered E Ink kiosk called Community HUB, that help students in schools report violence cases anonymously and safely. A 12-month trial in Mexico saw rediced abusive behavior and helped the school implement new violence prevention politics. Community HUB won the World Summit Aware for Inclusion and Empowerment.

Community HUB photo

The Community HUB uses Visionect's E Ink system. The developers say e-paper is the best fit for this kind of application due to the low power consumption and the outdoor visibility.

Read the full story Posted: Jul 15, 2016

Bookeen and SunPartner co-develop a solar-powered e-reader

Bookeen and solar innovator SunPartner are developing an e-reader with a built-in solar panel. SunPartner's technology (called Wysips - What You See is Photovoltaic Surface) enables a transparent solar panel to be embedded in the display. This means that the device will charge when light is present - even while reading and you do not have to turn it over.

Most mobile devices use too much power to be actually solar charged, but with an e-reader this may work very well. Bookeen aims to release the solar-powered e-reader in 2016.

Read the full story Posted: Mar 07, 2015

Ynvisible to develop paper-thin, low-power boards and modules in a new Arduino-based platform

Portugal-based Ynvisible is developing flexible transparent electrochromic displays and the company is already producing some displays in low volume. The company now launched a kickstarter project called Printoo that aims to develop an Arduino-based platform of paper-thin, low-power boards and modules. The company already reached their financing goal of $20,000 and there's still 25 days to go.

The Printoo platform includes 17 modules, including a microprocessor, a printed battery, Ynvisible's flexible, transparent display and a flexible solar cell. This is pretty cool stuff and it'll be great to see how the company delivers on their promise.

Read the full story Posted: Apr 21, 2014